The present invention relates generally to standard pattern comparing systems which recognize data by comparing it with a standard pattern registered in a dictionary stored therein, and more particularly to a standard pattern comparing system which uses a proper dictionary in accordance with the kind of data. The present invention also relates to a method for writing out a dictionary used for such a standard pattern comparing system. The present invention is especially useful for a voice recognition system in which a speaker dependent voice recognizer is used with a personal computer which manages a plurality of application programs.
The conventional voice recognition system having a voice recognizer used with a personal computer which manages a plurality of application programs comprises, as shown in FIG. 1, a personal computer 1, an external storage device 2, a voice recognizer 3, and a communication line 4. The personal computer 1 is coupled to the voice recognizer 3 via the communication line 4. The personal computer controls the voice recognizer 3, for example, when a voice dictionary is written out. The personal computer 1 comprises a central processing unit (abbreviated CPU hereinafter) 1a, a memory 1b and a communication controller 1c. The external storage device 2 comprises a voice dictionary data file 2a and a string dictionary data file 2b. The external storage device 2 may comprise a hard disk. The voice recognizer 3, which is a speaker dependent voice recognizer, comprises a recognition part 3a, a voice dictionary data 3b and a string dictionary data 3c. When the voice dictionary is written out, it is temporarily stored in the voice recognizer 3. Since the voice dictionary is volatile in the voice recognizer 3, it is transmitted to the external storage device 2 to be stored therein. The voice dictionary comprises voice dictionary data 3b and string dictionary data 3c. The voice dictionary data 3b specifies a feature of a pronunciation of a word, and the string dictionary data 3c specifies the spelling of the word. The voice and string dictionary data 3b and 3c are respectively stored in voice and string dictionary data files 2a and 2b in the external storage device 2. The voice dictionary is prepared for every application program. The voice recognizer 3 further comprises, as shown in FIG. 2, a microphone 10, a feature-extractor 11, a recognition part 12, voice dictionary data 13, string dictionary data 14, and a plotter 15. As is already known, the feature extractor 11 extracts a feature amount of a voice input from the microphone 10 to generate a feature pattern corresponding to the feature amount. The feature pattern is transmitted to the recognition part 12. The recognition part 12 recognizes the feature pattern by comparing it with the voice dictionary data 13, and outputs a recognition result to the string dictionary data 14. The string dictionary data 14 transmits a string column corresponding to the recognition result to the personal computer 1 via the plotter 15. Voice dictionary data 13 corresponds to string dictionary data 14 for a word number, as shown in FIG.3. A plurality of application programs can be used in the personal computer 1 at the same time.
However, the above conventional recognition system has the following disadvantage. A user must register some duplicate words used for at least more than two application programs, such as "END", "YES" and "NO" as shown in FIG. 4, for every application program, which is troublesome. This disadvantage is present in all standard pattern comparing systems which recognize input data by comparing it with a standard pattern registered therein, the standard pattern comparing system using properly a plurality of standard patterns in accordance with the kind of the input data,